Category Archives: Chapter 17: Aperture

The first battle of Pallmoor Gates took place at the start of the Second Vermese War. It could hardly be called a battle. While most of the armies of Tyn were mustered near the capital after the assassination of Duke Robyl, Vermese soldiers and goblinoid assassins stealthily sailed down the river red on barges scuttled from the Vermese town of RedRiver, bypassing the towers at Blumenfeld and Oaken Breach and taking the Pallmoor bridge by surpise. They somehow made it into the inner city and, though the Knights or Pallmoor Gates fought valiantly, it was too late.

The battle to liberate Pallmoor Gates would become known as the Battle of Pallmoor Gates, and it was a much bloodier affair. The battle was chronicled by the Bard known as Golden Boy, as follows:

“On the morning of the first Sun-day of the new year, news spread through the downtrodden city folke that liberation armies were approaching, and there were to be a big battle. In truthe, the veteran armies of Basil, Lord Protector of Lakewood, had met up with the forces of Stout Lord Yerbin at Weatherall, who had held said fort for the entire war to this poynt. The combined forces has knowledge of the last goblinoid army stationed outside Pallmoor, in the snow, and was able to wither them with quickness.

At that time, the forces of Commander Dankirk, who had been harassing the Vermese intruding on the Southern Reach for the length of the war, were making for Steelheart, apparently in a bid to liberate said towne. However, at the last minute those brave men broke for the River Red, joyning the dwarven warriors of Dun Agarin, who were waiting with barges from the Iron Hills to transport these men to Pallmoor.

Meanwhile, the resistance forces of lakewood burned the Arrow Vault, where the largest store of ammunition were held. Simultaneously, a spy in the Vermese ranks was able to poison the rations of a barracks, and a good part of the Vermese Longbow Regiment under Sir Mencher were unable to leave their chamber pots. These activities forced the Vermese Forces to engage the approaching armies of Tyn outside the city gaytes, in order to hold the Pallmoor Bridge to the country of Verma.

Dessicattia Rottli, acting Duchess Regent of the city, in retribution for the valiant acts of freedom mentioned above, used evil magick, alongside the dark wizard Thraxus, to both torture the people of the city and summon a burning giant to destroy the good folke. Powerful forces of good did engage. Sir Renton, the Red Knight, tried to kill Dessicatia, but was simultaneously burnt by magickal fyre, such that only his red shield and blackened skull were found, it is said.

The good wizards Maximillian and Father Hubbins were able to defeat Dessicatia, but at great coste to themselves.

All the while, great quakes struck in and around the city, shattering structures that have stood for a thousand years.

Outside the gates, the forces of Dankirk, grizzled veterans in leather and battered chain, who had slept under cold stars for two years, held their own against the strongest, most heavily armored Vermese soldiers, and fought in the snow. A pain priest in a tall helm shaped as a scorpion’s tail is said to have cast a spell that opened the very ground, and Dankirk was swallowed along with his best men, not to be found.

The combined forces of Basil and Yerbin had arrived, and fought to a standstill. The red tresses trailing from the helms of Yerbin’s Weatherall Guard. The snow grew red. A high priest from Armsby, Father Jannus, helped the battle greatly, but was killed when confronted by a powerful Fell Druid. A foul vapor of ravenous insects consumed him, only his white armour was later found.

Just when the battle appeared lost, which would mean the end of the way for great Tyn, forture arrived. First, elven wizards arrived from Brennevin on greeat Griffon’s. Bez’Rin led this charge, and picked off some of the greatest Vermese threats.

But the battle finally turned when soldiers had taken the wall inside the city and were able to man the walls and open the gates for the forces of good. Apparently, scores of elite Tyrese forces had been summoned inside the city walls by the great wizard Aron the Awesome, a feat of a magnitude none knew possible. The Bronzies took the inner city, with the help of the paladin Kyle the Unkillable, who fell valiantly in battle but was raysed from the dead to continue the war.

And that is how Pallmoor was won, but at great price. As for the rumors that the legendary Silver Spear guided the hands of one warrior that held that city, there are none that can claim to have seen that artifact, and surely in the hands of a powerful paladin like Kyle, we would have witnessed the legendary effect known as the Bane of Darkness against those evil souls.